MARINA SOKOLOVA

Confetti.

This is a really boring British movie, which is totally worth watching because Robert Webb (who plays Jeremy in Peep Show) is completely naked for most part of the movie. Yep, you can see everything properly for long periods of time.

Also: Olivia Colman (who plays Sophie in Peep Show) plays another nudist in this film and you also get to see a lot of her.

But Robert Webb! Oh my eyes!

Avatar 3D.

I think that pretty much every blogger has posted about Avatar already. I will join the crowd and write: I saw Avatar in 3D. I haven’t been to cinema in a very long time, but for 3D I changed PJs for jeans and dragged my butt out. I enjoyed this movie a lot. It is beautiful and, in my opinion, has a good plot.

Avatar also reminded me about my old post, where I mentioned that people in the 60s and 70s used to believe that by the year 2000 we would have towns on other planets. This movie made me feel a little bit sad for the future we never had.  Unfortunately, after the collapse of the USSR, cosmos exploration not only did not progress, but seems to have regressed. I guess it is because for now it is purely a socialistic and idealistic science. It is not commercially feasible, as it does not provide quick financial gain. Money is spent simply on learning. Instead of towns on other planets, we have now smaller individualistic products, such as personal phones, PCs, ipods, etc. Instead of expanding into the cosmos and possibly meet other civilisations, we are becoming more introvert. We are locking ourselves in homes individually and expand into virtual reality. How many towns have you built in PC games? Lots, right? Me too. Although, judging by what happened in the movie, maybe it is for the best. Maybe, while humans confine themselves voluntarily in their cubicles and shoeboxes they do less harm to other possible civilisations.

Movie: Slumdog Millionaire.

I was shocked by how characters portrayed in the movie treat each other. No respect for each other’s rights or feelings whatsoever. No laws, no hope. I wonder if this is entirely fiction or this work of art is trying to portray an actual mentality that exists in the slums. I mean, if torture happened in USA’s prison in Iraq then it can probably happen in some other parts of the world. If this movie portrays the attitude and lifestyle that exist in slums like this then I wonder what came first the chicken or the egg. Do people tend to live in poverty, because they treat each other like this and there is no order? Or do they start to hate each other and everything becomes chaos, because they struggle to live? Or may be they don’t even feel it as struggle and are actually happy?

Marie-Antoinette movie.

This is a fabulous movie about Marie-Antoinette (one of the queens of France). In addition to it being very interesting, the movie is gorgeous eye candy. This movie is also famous for the fact that it was shot inside Versailles (France). Usually moviemakers are not allowed to work in places like this, because they allegedly behave like pigs and leave everything in tatters after they’ve done. Sofia Coppola is one of a very few moviemakers who were allowed to shoot in Versailles. In fact, she gained so much trust that she was even given permission to shoot in rooms that were closed off to tourists for restoration.

Facebuilding.

I don’t remember last time I tried a face cream. It was long time a go, when I was younger and more naïve. Currently, I own and occasionally use precisely 2 skincare products: lip balm, and hand cream. I don’t use anything special to wash my face either. I just use whatever is at hand: either a shampoo, or shower gel, or hand soap. It seems funny to me how some people would hope that a cream would make their face firmer. Or even funnier: some people would put plaster or cream on their bellies and hope that it would relieve them of the fat. In my personal experience the only things that made any difference to the appearance of my face are food, stress, and facercise. The last one made the most noticeable impact for me.

It is actually amazing how many people have heard of bodybuilding, but never considered facebuilding (even now, as I write this, the app highlights facebuilding as misspelled, but not bodybuilding), as if the face is made of different material and not out of muscles like the rest of the body. Whereas, in fact, facebuilding is much more rewarding than bodybuilding. The smaller the muscles, the faster the results. Most people I know, who practise it, say that they saw good results with in up to 2 weeks. And it is not just about firmness of the muscles. Blood flow from exercises delivers more collagen and other nutrients to the skin as well.

I, personally, have already tried a number of books and videos by Barbara Currie, Tessa Thomas, Juliette Kando, and Carole Maggio. They are all good in many ways. Currently, I am using one of Carole Maggio’s videos. I think that her exercises give me the best impact for my neck and under chin area. I feel that front of the neck is my problem area. I know this makes me sound quite vain about my appearance, but I thought I would share my experience anyway. And may be it would help someone, who still thinks there is a miracle pill, or cream, or whatever. Nope, this is meritocracy in action. It doesn’t meter how much money you spend, it is about how much work you put in.

The movie: Arthur and the Minimoys. Also known as Arthur and the Invisibles.

This is a very beautiful movie. I am surprised I haven’t heard of it before. It is a magical fantasy adventure movie about invisible underground world of minimoys. The villain knows about the treasures that hidden world possesses and wants to take over the land and the house above it. The boy living in the house also knows about these treasures and thinks that if he gets them he can pay off the creditor that is eager to repossess the house. The boy loves the house and wants to help his grandparents to keep it, so he uses a magical ritual to make himself smaller and enter the hidden world.

There are two even more unusual things than the hidden world in this movie. The first one: ten-year-old kids fall in love and get married in a magical world. The second one: they exchange a kiss at their wedding and do not smash a glass with their feet like in all Hollywood cartoons and movies (sarcasm). Btw, before you get on a very high horse, I have nothing against the Jews whatsoever, but I am really tired to see religion in general been forced on the kids this way.

The movie: Up.

It is not as spectacular as it first appears from the adverts, but it is quite nice. It is mostly about an old guy and a boy. The first one is grieving after he has outlived his lifelong partner. And the second is abandoned by his biological father after the parent’s divorce and is desperately trying to better himself in a hope of deserving attention from the absent parent. It seems that there is a parallel between the old guy’s loss and the loss of the little boy. I guess this should make this intricate emotional side of the story understandable and appealing to all ages.

The old guy decided to fulfil his life long dream and go for an adventure. He takes the entire house with him, which is his oyster and in which he feels comfortable and talks to his dead wife. Accidentally, he takes the boy with him too. During the adventure they get to know each other and develop a bond. The circumstances force the old guy out of his shell and help him move on with his life. It also makes them both feel more capable than they thought they were. When they get back, the old guy becomes the boy’s surrogate male figure and everyone is happy.

Fast Food Nation.

I have watched Fast Food Nation movie today. Despite the boredom I watched it carefully to the end, but did not understand the meaning of it. On a good side, it was very pleasing to see the high standards of equipment and cleanliness in a meat production factory. It was better than I expected. I have not noticed anything bad about how animals are kept ether. I hop this was a true portrayal. Because if this is as bad as it gets, then it relives a lot of my paranoia about meat and I will be less afraid to eat burgers. I am not sure why others find this film shocking and say they can’t eat meat after watching it. But then, my parents used to produce our own natural food in my early childhood and one of my pasttimes was to fry on open fire a peace of freshly cut meat for a snack watching dad finishing cutting the rest of the animal. So, it is rather kind of natural to me. On other hand, I used to believe that really clean and good food is made at home. This movie taught me to trust big industries a bit more than I used to.

 

I guess, may be for people, who have never seen how the food is made completely from scratch, it doesn’t look as natural as it is to me. 

 

 

Kinky Boots.

I watched a movie called Kinky Boots. It is an interesting movie about a guy, who inherited a shoe factory that is no longer profitable. He had to do everything to save it. At the end, with a help of lots of talented people and few miracles, he succeeded. Worth watching.

Upstairs Downstairs series.

I discovered Upstairs Downstairs. It is an old TV show about relationship between servants and employers in a big London house. It portraits in details their mentalities. The servants sometimes are snootier than their employers. Watching the series feels like actually observing their lives. It was also funny to see people who wouldn’t open any door in their home handling pots in a soup kitchen for the poor, you know, volunteering their time :) And then they come back home and a cook tells the maid to “get back in the kitchen”, because “everyone wants their sandwiches after charity”. In addition to the funny bits like those, I find the show generally quite fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn4d5Tnu_oU&feature=related